午夜整食嚴重損害牙齒

Eating food in the middle of the night can seriously damage your teeth, experts warn.

專傢忠告，正在午夜吃東西可嚴重損傷牙齒。

Midnight snacks may stick to the teeth for longer, experts suspect

Researchers have found midnight snacking ups the risk of tooth loss, regardless of the type of food that is eaten.

The Danish investigators blame changes in saliva（唾液） flow - it tends to dry up at night.

Enough saliva is important to remove food debris（碎片，殘骸） from the mouth, they explain in Eating Behaviours journal.

Night nibbles

Working with colleagues from the US, the team at Copenhagen University examined the medical records of 2,217 Danes already enrolled in a medical study.

Of these 173, or 8%, could be classed as nocturnal（夜間的） eaters - meaning they consumed a quarter or more of their daily calories after dinner or would wake up in the middle of the night at least twice a week for a little moonlight snack.

When the researchers tracked what happened to all of the study participants over a period of six years, a significant finding emerged.

The nocturnal eaters ended up losing more teeth, even after accounting for other factors such as age, smoking and sugar/carbohydrate（碳火化开物） consumption.

While dentists may not be able to stop their patients feasting in the middle of the night, Dr Jennifer Lundgren and colleagues say they should make them aware of the associated risks.

"Practitioners should be aware of the oral health implications（露義，啟示） of nocturnal eating, increase screening and oral health education efforts among nocturnal eaters and make treatment referrals when appropriate（適噹的） ," they say.

Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association, said: "Eating at night, when the mouth is driest and any food remains in the mouth longer, accentuates（強調） the impact of consuming sugary and acidic（痠性的） food and drinks.

"To minimise damage, it is important to brush teeth twice a day with fluoride（氟化物） toothpaste, with one of those brushes coming immediately before bedtime.

"Where possible, consume only water for at least an hour before the final brush of the day."